Sometimes, marketing comes down to a personal decision

In a field where most people just follow the crowd, making a personal decision to carve a unique path might make all the difference to a marketing strategy.

On vacation in Italy, I visited a lovely wine shop in Florence. So of course, I wanted to talk to the owner about marketing (can't help myself). The proprietor had a lovely place filled with antiques and art -- such an interesting, visual environment! And yet, she wasn't on Instagram. In fact, she didn't use social media at all, a personal decision that certainly goes against the grain.

"Everyone tells me I should be posting," she said. "But I don't feel comfortable with it and would rather spend my time talking with customers."

She spread her arms to indicate this sacred space where she sits in her shop, sipping wine with customers. "This is what I love about my business."

Obviously, this anti-social media strategy has worked well. Her business has been growing for 18 years, built on her reputation of quality products and personal attention.

Sometimes, you can't just listen to the gurus. Marketing is often a personal decision.

And I'd like you to consider this alternative thinking as a possible competitive advantage ...

Marketing lemmings

The biggest problem with marketing, and especially social media marketing, is that "best practices" are so well known and so easily absorbed. Once a new competitive trick is discovered on a social platform, it spreads like wildfire and becomes part of everyone's normal practice.

For example, the "shocked look" video thumbnail pioneered by Mr Beast:

Leads to this:

I'm not judging whether this is good or bad. It probably works on some level. But it all looks the SAME.

My point is that by going your own way, following your muse, and ignoring conventional wisdom, you can evolve into your own competitive advantage simply because when it's YOU, it's different.

Go your own way

I was an early adopter of social media marketing. In 2006, as part of my corporate marketing duties, I led an early social media team and started my own blog a few years later.

And I was a big rule-follower. I desperately tried to fit in and follow all the best practices of the day. I dutifully created my strategic, SEO-optimized content for my "ideal customer personas." And two things happened.

First, nothing happened. Nobody was reading or commenting on my content.

Second, I became bored. What was I doing? Creating keyword-infused content for a made-up persona? Blah.

So I stopped.  And I started telling my own story, following my curiosity, expressing opinions (even when they went against the grain), and breaking the shackles of Google-driven content.

And something amazing happened.

When I went my own way, instead of finding my ideal audience, my ideal audience found me. And they were all over the world. When I decided to be a real person, real people responded back, and it changed my career.

There is no way this would have happened if I had stayed in the social media trough of best practices.

It was a powerful lesson, and since then, I've broken rules all along the way as I've written my books, created The Uprising, and established a speaking career. That personal decision to have your own little rebel yell doesn't mean you're reckless or offensive. But it requires courage to show up differently when boring is the path of least resistance.

The personal decision and marketing

Are you in a marketing trough? Are you so focused on what other people are doing that you're overlooking your unique value and inherent creativity?

More importantly, are you happy and excited about your work, or are you becoming bored with all these rules, as I was?

Stop trying to game the system and start being unapologetically you. Because in the end, people don't connect with keywords or personas. They connect with stories, passion, and real human beings who have something genuine to say.

There is a place for best practices, but don't overlook the power of going your own way, especially when most marketing is so dull. There is tremendous pressure to do what everybody else is doing. It might seem scary not to follow the crowd. But that might be your most powerful and meaningful differentiator.

I appreciate you and the time you took out of your day to read this! You can find more articles like this from me on the top-rated {grow} blog and while you’re there, take a look at my Marketing Companion podcast and my keynote speaking page. For news and insights find me on Twitter at @markwschaefer, to see what I do when I’m not working, follow me on Instagram, and discover my RISE community here.